Mihail Doman, composer & pianist

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano & pursue a career in music?

I was especially inspired by Jean Michel Jarre’s music, and his humanistic approach to his art and craft.

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

I would say Jean Michel Jarre and Hans Zimmer. They are not pianists, indeed, but their compositions exerted – and still do – a powerful influence on me.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Crossing over from the bass guitar to the piano. Bass players have a very lazy left hand. 🙂

How would you characterise your compositional language/style?

I think the word is “minimal”.

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

I’m proud of this very first album of mine

What would be your dream concert venue to perform in?

Royal Albert Hall. Doesn’t get more prestigious than that.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

I love listening to Ludovico Einaudi’s minimal but soulful compositions. “Una Mattina” is my favorite album of his.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Jean Michel Jarre, Hans Zimmer, Ludovico Einaudi and some of the great classics.

How do you work? (as a composer)

I first create the theme on the piano. For Arhythmology it was a very basic motif in Em, which you can hear all-through-out the album. And then I build the songs around the theme and around some variations. After that, I create a rough draft of the song in my music program, so I have something to prepare the strings to. Then comes the sound design part – probably the best part. I use a lot of virtual synths. I usually like to do my own sounds, so a lot of times I start with an empty sound, like just a basic Sine or Saw wave.

Next is the string orchestra. Hopefuly on the next albums I’ll be able to use a live orchestra, but for now it was Native Instruments’ Session Strings, along with a really old East West Quantum Leap Library that I had lying around, to give it a bigger size 🙂 Programming the strings is a super tedious work, because you basically have to write every note manually for every individual voice. And afterwards you have to tweak the velocity and the sample sounds until you have something that sounds natural.

As you can see, my process involves a lot of computer work, my music being very electronic as well. Using good old pen and paper certainly has its charm, but for my music I must go to the digital realm.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?